


soft fuzzy man

by sydcore



Category: HLVRAI - Fandom, Half Life VR But The AI Is Self Aware
Genre: Multi, as a treat., because for now its pretty mild!, benrey has signs of autism or adhd idk hes just neurodivergent, benrey is absolutely out of it half the time, domestic pleasantries!, he/they for benrey too, i also break a lot of logic here i think, i will add tags and warnings to each chapter because, in fact uhm most of them are nd, slow burn kind of?, sunkist uses she her pronouns!!!, theres a lot of angst., this is a lot of self projection bu thats ok
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-17
Updated: 2020-10-30
Packaged: 2021-03-09 01:07:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 4
Words: 5,858
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27056167
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sydcore/pseuds/sydcore
Summary: So what happens when the final boss is eliminated, you ask?Well, to put it simply;Benrey wakes up in a parking lot of a midwestern Movie Theater of Unknown Origin. How long has it been… he doesn’t know, it only felt like five minutes… this is so weird… And inside the doors, he hears the voices of Dr. Coomer, Tommy, Bubby and Gordon he envied so much. It only takes a moment for the doors to open, and for Tommy to shout.“Benrey?”Benrey gives a thumbs up from his place on the ground, and immediately passes out against the voices around him.
Relationships: Benrey & Bubby & Tommy Coolatta & Dr. Coomer & Gordon Freeman, Benrey & Tommy Coolatta, Benrey/Gordon Freeman, Bubby & Tommy Coolatta & Dr. Coomer & Gordon Freeman, Bubby/Dr. Coomer (Half-Life), Darnold & Gordon Freeman, Tommy Coolatta & Darnold
Comments: 15
Kudos: 220





	1. behind the screen!

**Author's Note:**

> hello!!! so this is my first time like actually writing a fic that people might see, y'know? its mostly for me to get my hyperfixation jimmies out, partially for comfort, but yeah!  
> so general warning to put out there:  
> i most certainly do not know where im going with this!! all i know is that like. gordon benrey hold hands . domestic fluff. yknow?  
> anyways!!! enjoy!!! -ur local kinnie

What happens when Benrey’s done playing on that PlayStation? 

This is what happens. 

He continues to follow Gordon around. Annoying him throughout the game’s nights and mornings and afternoons. He’s left saying things like, ‘hey, friend’ and ‘you’re a clumsy boy!’ when Gordon loses his hand. … Why did that happen, anyways? He can’t quite remember why they chopped off his hand. He only wanted them to take him away. The dimension they were going to is _scary_. It’s where he originated. It’s fucked up and uncool. 

So why the hell do they want to go there so bad?

Might as well ask.

“Hey,” he starts.

Gordon turns, “Hm? Oh, god, what do you want?” he sounds exasperated, rolling his eyes as he adjusts the new weird prosthetic that the cybernetics department granted him (it was an odd process.)

“... Why are we going there,” he asks, rather blandly - without much expression. Per usual, “To Xen. The weird fucked up place. ”

Groaning, Gordon puts his actual-hand on his head, “Oh my god, Benrey, we’re just -- we’re going there to _fix_ this. If there’s a shit ton of aliens, then this is an issue we have to fix.”

“Yes, Benrey, I thought you knew this!” one of the companions chimes in, “Me, Tommy and Bubby over here have known this for a long time!”

Benrey lets out a ‘psh’ noise, rolling his shadowed eyes. Of course he knew. But this wasn’t a good enough answer for him. 

“Yeah, okay, whatever, Coomer,” he sighs to the overly-peppy companion character. Dr. Coomer gives him a big smile behind a cartoonishly big mustache, and gives him a big thumbs up.

Benrey doesn’t think he means it, really. He doesn’t think a lot of them mean it when they say they’re his friends. He’s never had friends, so why start now? Because he cares about the stupid player with anger issues and a gun for a hand? Unfair. He wants a gun for a hand, but he didn’t get one! All he got was a weird shadow face!

… 

He was the antagonist, wasn’t he? It would only make sense. When Gordon first walked in, he immediately said something that made them upset. He liked them, really. He thought they were so cool, super pretty, and really handsome. He was a physicist, even. That’s so cool. Why was it cool? Benrey doesn’t know. He just knows that he doesn’t want to be the antagonist, but the constant villainizing makes him feel like he _should_ be. Afterall, Gordon kept arguing and arguing and shooting and all this stuff, but Benrey wouldn’t die. He’d come back as a weird skeleton and call it a day before popping back into his weird security guard form. It was just how it was, and he’s not sure where he falls anymore on the scale. Chaotic evil? Chaotic neutral, probably. Gordon, he thinks, is chaotic good - he’s practically killed the entire NPC population throughout the game. Wack, Benrey thinks, as he finally starts to fall way behind.

They were growing closer and closer to the finale. They got into the weird Ethereal Dimension -- which wasn’t ethereal at all. It was gross and fleshy and ugly. 

Which left Benrey following them in and watching from afar until they got to his weird chamber of evil-ness. 

“I didn’t want to be bad,” he admits, practically ten times his original size, looking down against the characters battling against him, “You made me bad. You made me bad by - by arguing a whole bunch -- and - and yelling - and it hurt, it hurt, man, bro…” Benrey continues, and as Gordon tries to butt in, his pupils develop into slits, like a cat’s eye, “Dude, I thought we were friends! Like, we - we used to play in - in the sand n’ mud, and -”

“We were _never_ friends! _You’re forging those fucking memories!”_ Gordon shouts, pointing his minigun arm up at Benrey.

Benrey looks shocked.

… That’s not what he remembers. He remembers so much about Gordon. The stuff he’d tell him as a kid. At some point, Benrey got stuck. More contained, he thinks, which he thinks is bullshit. That was over 15 years ago, and he feels… weird about it, now. … He misses Gordon.

“I have to be mean now,” he booms, “So - so fight me instead!”

(Which wasn’t a good idea to say, he thinks, because they all kicked his ass pretty hard. He didn’t even fight back.)

Gordon shouts, as they finally watch Benrey float away and up towards the light show above them, “Yeah! _YEAH! HOW’S IT FEEL TO FINALLY DIE FOR THE FIRST TIME?”_

Right… he never truly died… but this time felt different. Benrey has never felt this amount of pain. There are so many gunshot wounds in his body. He feels awful.

“Auuuh…” Benrey moans, gripping his chest as he flies away, and -- finally, bursts into light.

All he sees is blue.

It’s all blue. A bright perma-link blue. Google docs blue. The middle stripe of _Jif_ peanut butter blue. Bright. 

So, why is he still here? It doesn’t hurt as much. 

…

Benrey finally looks up at the ‘sky’. It was all the same shade of blue. He was floating in a no man's land of error blue. And he turns around - only to face a giant error screen.

 _An error has occurred in the following program_ , it reads, _(HL1-42069-0), Half Life 1: VR._

Huh. Um… This feels like a PS4. (Even though Half-Life wasn’t on a PS4.)

There are buttons. What happens if he reaches out and touches them, he thinks? One reads, “See system preferences,” it says, and the next? “Hello, Benrey.”

… He presses “Hello, Benrey”, because what else does he have to lose?

So what happens when the final boss is eliminated, you ask?

Well, to put it simply;

Benrey wakes up in a parking lot of an American Movie Theater of Unknown Origin. How long has it been… he doesn’t know, it only felt like five minutes… this is so weird… And inside the doors, he hears the voices of Dr. Coomer, Tommy, Bubby and Gordon he envied so much. It only takes a moment for the doors to open, and for Tommy to shout.

“ _Benrey?_ ”

Benrey gives a thumbs up from his place on the ground, and immediately passes out against the voices around him.

  
  



	2. i'm not even angry

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gordon knows he's basically fucked at this point.

It’s been a year since the Black Mesa incident, which subsequently means that yes, it’s Tommy’s birthday. Luckily for Gordon, he didn’t have to show up at another Chuck E. Cheese’s, and only had to drive himself to their local movie theater. 

That of which was only a short drive from his house!

That being said, Gordon has been going to therapy with his government issued hush money. and with Joshua is in his arms (one of which being a robotic prosthetic, and not a gun), he has been keeping up quite well. Not mentioning the PTSD, of course, but he’s trying. 

Joshua was five, now, growing up by the second. Gordon felt immensely prideful of his son, pretty much giving any and all support his way. Doesn’t wanna talk? Cool, cool, he found a text to speech app. Wants to talk for hours? Great! He’ll take mental notes of what he likes! It was all up to Joshua, because he loves him dearly and wants to be there for him. 

Being a single parent was extremely hard, though, and while he was on good terms with his ex wife, (he just had the majority of custody), he couldn’t shake _his_ childhood thoughts. Growing up without a mom was hard enough as it is, and he’s just glad he’ll be there for Boy Issues and not Girl Issues (because he has like zero resources for that, besides the Late Wikipedia that just fucking died last year). 

Meanwhile, Joshua has more weird relatives! That counts as 1 weird uncle, and 3 weird grandpas! Because, even if they’ve had their kerfuffles, G-Man and Gordon were on good terms. He liked the guy, and not just because he was Tommy’s dad. G-Man likes Joshua, and has often given him strange toys - and the classic Cowboy, of course. But yes, 3 grandpas made for a good time. Bubby doesn’t like children, but deals with it because Coomer loves Joshua. Tommy is just a pleasantry to be around, no explanation.

And Gordon is glad that there is not another weird uncle to that list. .

Until now, of course, because Benrey was laying face up on the concrete of their local movie theater that G-Man so lovingly rented out. 

“ _Benrey?_ ” Tommy shouts out, which confirms Gordon’s increasing fear. He had this weird feeling that something would happen. Like, oh, maybe his ex would reach out! … No, it was Benrey. 

“Oh, my god!” Coomer cries out, practically shoving the popcorn into Bubby’s hands, as he rushes over to the collapsed fella on the ground. 

Gordon watches with shock and terror as they pull him off of the road and onto the side walk, Tommy dialing 911 almost immediately. They weren’t thinking about the fact that this was Benrey. They knew who it was. They knew who it was and who tried to kill them. 

He thought he was dead. So why is he crying? Is it the soda that he just now realized fell onto the ground? He’s terrified. He can’t stop shaking. He’s conflicted, he _hasn’t said a word_.

“Gordon!!” Bubby shouts, now beside the group of worried friends, “Keep an eye out! We are going to check on his pulse.”

“Th- Thanks, I guess —“ Gordon manages, eyes on the main road nearest to them. 

“He seems to be breathing!!” Coomer announces, to which Tommy sighs in relief. 

It’s not long before the sirens from the distance grow closer and closer, until Tommy and Gordon are wincing together over the noise of it until it stops. That’s one thing they bond over, though for different reasons, now. Without much thinking, Gordon followed into the back of the ambulance, the rushed speech of his friends drowning out his thoughts. It felt like static. Static because he was staring at Benrey’s unconscious body, with close to nothing beyond bruises and a minor scrape. All of those gunshots… for what? … Gordon doesn’t understand. 

Tommy sits next to him as they ride to the hospital. 

It was a while until Gordon snapped back into reality. He had mindlessly followed the science team into the hospital, sitting outside in the waiting room, etc etc. So that’s what he did. Fiddling with his phone, biting on his lip, leg bouncing and bouncing and bouncing. 

He didn’t even notice the odd hum coming from his throat. 

“Hey, Mr. Freeman?” Tommy butts in, startling Gordon into looking up at him. Gosh, he was tall. 

“Uh—yeah, what’s up?”

“Are you alri - Are you okay?” he starts, “You’re humming a lot. You only - you really often do that when you’re upset, I think.”

Gordon closes his eyes, putting his hand over his eyes in exasperation. He’s absolutely out of it, of course, which is really the only way he can put his emotions into words. He couldn’t see that _damn security guard outfit_ without knowing immediately who it was. He’s just in awe, and… he can’t _fathom_ it. It’s scary, it’s terrifying, he’s shaking, and -

“I’m not okay!” he exclaims, voice crackling, “Tommy, I - it’s obvious I’m upset. For fucks sake, the dude that tormented us is in the other room?” Gordon sounds flabbergasted, “He’s -- he’s not _dead_ , Tommy!”

“Oh - oh.”

Tommy frowns, wringing his hands back and forth after he set the can of soda on the arm of the chair, “I.. I know it’s - it’s scary! And - even my dad is scared! I - I mean, look at him!”  
When Tommy motions to his phone, holding up the screen, Gordon squints past his glasses.

Yep. G-Man (under the name ‘Dad Man’) was going over and over asking seemingly a billion questions. Tommy sighs.

“I already told him I’m okay. He’s - they’re not even up - like… it’s.. um… hm..”

Gordon frowns, and sinks back against the back of his chair.

“Ye- yeah, I guess… He’d be weak anyways, right? You… know more about him than I do.”

“I guess, so, I - I don’t know. Like - um - he died, right? I don’t know if he actually died.”

“.. Mhm.”

When Gordon finishes that last word, footsteps begin echoing throughout the nearby hallways, and soon, Dr. Coomer and Bubby appear from around the corner.

“Hello, Gordon!” Dr. Coomer chimes, and Bubby puts his hand on his shoulder in a bit of a hush. Coomer gives Bubby a slight smile, and whispers something.

Gordon waves, to put it simply, with a slight smile. Coomer always made his mood a bit better, as he was very similar to a father figure for him.

“Bubby and I have checked in with the doctors, and they have told us that Benrey has simply been asleep and will be asleep for a while! He’s very tired after all that fighting, after all!” Dr. Coomer laughs heartily, and Bubby hushes him again. The lady at the desk gives him an unsettled look, and Bubby shoots her a sharp toothed smile - only to have her immediately look away.

“That’s - good, I think?” Gordon sputters, confused, and hesitant on what his feelings were exactly, “I… honestly, I don’t know. I’m not glad he’s back, of course, I wish he’d go the fuck away already, but -”

“I’m glad he’s not in a huge amount of harm - trouble!” Tommy interrupts, “I don’t know if we could afford that bill! Er - I don’t think he could, either!!”

Yeah. Gordon certainly knows he can’t fucking afford that. He leans over, and puts his elbows on his knees, leaning into the palms of his hands. Dr. Coomer and Bubby eventually walk over to sit next to the two, holding hands, as Dr. Coomer puts a hand on Gordon’s shoulder to try and comfort him..

Needless to say, this would be insane.


	3. i'm being so sincere right now

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Benrey is in the hospital, Dr. Coomer is a nice man, Bubby is grumpy per always, Tommy thinks about how Benrey feels and Gordon is exasperated.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so here's the funny thing; Nyro is a character i made 3 years ago n hes one of my main ocs! selfless plugging rn but hes from one of my games (in this fic he's just aged up) called doctor's orders.

edit:

Benrey woke up from a literal 24 hour nap. Surprisingly (to him, at least), he was exhausted. His eyes hurt, his head hurts, his whole body hurts, whenever he moves his arms they’re sore. They shoot through his body with some sort of unfair pain that he can’t describe.

When he does wake up, of course, Benrey is left groaning and moaning dramatically. It’s mostly for shits and giggles, but there’s a huge part of it that’s genuine.

… So, like, where the hell is he? Some stupid doctor’s office? He grumbles as the door opens, with a worried nurse standing beyond it.

“Uhm - Barney?” he looks at the clipboard in his hand.

“Benrey,” Benrey grumbles back, rolling his eyes, “S’not a typo.”

“Oh!” he exclaims, “Okay, neat. Well, you’ve certainly gotten a heap of rest, haven’t you?” he starts, walking over to the side of Benrey’s bed. Benrey looks up at him, and his name tag, which reads ‘Nyro’. … He’s got a weird name too.

“Yo, how do you pronounce that,” he mutters, referring to Nyro’s name.

“Hm?” the nurse looks past a strand of dark hair, “Oh. My name? Nye-roh,” he sounds it out. “Nyro. It’s odd, I get it.”

“Nah. Odd names are poggers.”

… Nyro exhales through his nose in a small laugh, and Benrey barely smiles. He feels like he has to keep a stoic expression on his face, but Nyro seems to keep a cheery disposition on for the entire time.

Nyro flips a paper over the top of the clip board, humming.

“Do you mind if I run some questions past you, Mr. Benrey? The people who brought you in here filled out some information for you, but they aren’t here at the moment,” he explains, “I can bring them in soon, but first I have to fact check these forms.”

… Benrey sighs, “Fine. Whatever.”

“Thank you.”

And Nyro goes through several questions, Benrey nodding or shaking his head for each and every one. He hates this, actually, this is so fucking boring. He wants to play fuckin uhhh… a cool game. A cooler game than this. He should ask Nyro about video games, he thinks, maybe he knows something.  
“... at Black Mesa?”

Benrey blinks. Black Mesa?? What about it?

“...a- Wuh?”

“Do you work at Black Mesa, Benrey?” Nyro repeats, tapping the paper with the backside of his pen.

“Nuh-uh,” he huffs, “Explosion. Fucked up aliens. No more. Bwaaaahh,” Benrey mimics the sound effects with his mouth, and Nyro frowns as he does. Aliens and explosions, he said! Nyro doesn’t seem to believe that.

Nonetheless, Nyro mutters something to himself, and then writes it down.

“Great. Thank you. You don’t have insurance, then?”

“Nah.”

Nyro inhales, and furrows his eyebrows. This is gonna suck, then. Eventually, he just sighs, and gives Benrey a smile after finishing up the papers. It was a friendly smile, maybe a bit lopsided, as Benrey squints at the scarring near the side of his face. Hm. He’s never gonna see this dude again, why care? 

“I’ll bring you something to eat in a few minutes -”

Though, there is something else Benrey cares about.

“.. Yo, who brought me here.”

Nyro pauses, “Uhm… you’re under the name -” he flips back to the first page, “Dr. Harold and B - .. Bubby Coomer.”

Benrey’s mind goes blank. So… so they didn’t just leave him to die twice. He’s sure he would just get up and move around again but… they cared enough to bring him to a hospital? And -- and - are they _married_??

“Huh.”

“You know them, right?”

“... Yeah,” he states, _Though it’s been a long time._

And so, Nyro smiles and nods, as he starts to make his way to the door. Benrey figures he’d be back with, like, some stupid food or something. He doesn’t need to eat. He feels fine! He’s totally fine without food! In fact, he could go a thousand years without food!

… Until Nyro actually pushed him to eat the apple sauce he had brought in, that’s what Benrey thought. Fucked up, he thinks, fucked up that this is making me feel better. Quite frustrated over the sudden spike of humanity, he sighs, and eyes the nurse when he leaves for the second time.

The thought of the Science Team actually worrying about him enough to bring him to a professional hospital baffled him, at the moment, as his chest swelled with something that made him rather upset. Augh, Benrey sighs, this is evil. Evil! They hate him so why do they care.

… This is so unfair, dude.

  
  


Benrey slept for another eight hours until the next day arrived, though it felt like five minutes to him. He’s not sure how that works. How can you close your eyes and not dream? It’s stupid, it makes him feel all groggy. Why can’t he just dream and not be in pain for a while? Benrey wants to not be sore. That’d be poggers. So, as Benrey finally opens his eyes, he groans at the fluorescent light in his room. Gross.

“Hello, Benrey!”

Benrey jumps, throwing his hands up in a moment of sheer terror. He lets out a startled yelp, yellow eyes darting back and forth to land on a looming Dr. Coomer. He hasn’t seen that face in ages. Benrey relaxes, shoulders slumping against the pillow beyond his head. Behind Coomer was Bubby, who put a hand on Coomer’s shoulder to pull him back.

“We were called to come in today by Dr. Nyro!” he continues to explain, waving his hands around a bit, “He’s a very nice man, I’m quite surprised that you did not try to bite his hand off. When we told him you were feisty, he was shocked!”

Benrey’s expression fades back into his neutral stoic expression, though his eyes remained twice as tired than usual. 

“... Yeah.”

Bubby clears his throat, “Well then. Long time no see, Benrey,” he adjusts his glasses, and though he couldn’t see through them due to the glare (which honestly seemed ever-present), he could tell Bubby wasn’t looking directly at Benrey like Coomer was. Benrey felt his chest throb a bit.

“... Where’s Feetman. N’ Tommy,” Benrey plays with the paper around his wrist. 

“They’re on their way,” Bubby huffs a bit, “Tommy had to convince Gordon to show up, so he’s gotta drop his kid off at his mom’s.”

Benrey blinks, “He wasn’t lying?” he makes a face, “I thought he was lying.”

“Well, he was not!” Coomer chimes, “You called his actual kid ‘a bit shit’, my good bitch.”

… Benrey thinks he shouldn’t feel bad, but he does. He glances to the other side of the room, at the windows.

Ahem. Benrey clears his throat, “So, um, cringe nurse over there told me you guys put me under your name or somethin’. Are you two married? … Gay grandpas?”

“Not quite yet, Benrey, though we are together. Bubby just didn’t have a last name, so he took mine instead!” Dr. Coomer puts a hand on Bubby’s, and looks up at him with a happy, content expression. Bubby’s face flushes a bit.

“... Cool.”

Benrey feels a bit jealous of how happy they are, really. He wants that. That’d be so cool. Course, it’d be different than Bubby and Coomer. They’d chill together and it’d be cool and nice and he could be forgiven for anything he did in the past! That would be very nice. … He doesn’t like the fact that the person he’s imagining has a very specific way of not showing their face. They’re definitely strong, he thinks, which is wild, because Benrey isn’t strong at all. He figures it’s just a weird beauty standard for himself that he doesn’t understand. Benrey frowns as he thinks. Hm. … 

Benrey eventually snaps out of that weird fantasy when the door opens to reveal Tommy and Gordon. Best buds, he thinks. Hm. Not like he’s angry about it or anything. Gordon immediately avoids eye contact, despite Benrey looking up at him first.

“Yo. Tommy.” Benrey points at him a bit, and winces as his wrist moves a shitty way. Yikes. At least Tommy smiles at him, and Gordon purses his lips a bit in an awkward smile. 

The energy in this room was definitely not sexy, he thinks.

“How the fuck -” he hears Gordon mutter, as the ex-scientist puts a hand over his face, “I don’t… listen, man, I don’t understand,” Gordon speaks up. He’s keeping a pretty solid distance from Benrey, “How are you alive? We -- I --”

“Yeah.”

“What?”

Benrey shrugs, “I dunno. Kind of poggers for me to get another chance.”

Gordon just blinks at him, as Tommy clears his throat. 

“Well! They wouldn’t let me bring soda in here for - for you, Benrey, I’m - really sorry…” Tommy perks up a bit, laughing a little, “When we get out of - of here, you can come meet Sunkist! Cause - cause she’s not allowed in here.”

“Isn’t she a therapy dog, Tommy?” Bubby speaks up, a confused frown present on his face, “She should be allowed in here, then.”

“Uhm - she’s too big!” he whines a bit, “It’s unfair.”

Gordon frowns, “Yeah, that’s bullshit, sorry.”

As Benrey opens his mouth to say something, a subtle knock on the door turns everyone’s heads away from his bed and towards the entrance. It’s Nyro! And he’s come to discuss money, unfortunately.

Nyro’s eyes crunch up in a slight smile, as he waves a gloved hand to everyone in the room, “Hello, everyone,” he starts, “I’ve been told Benrey here doesn’t have insurance… Now, Dr. Coomer, do you have something he can fall back on?”

Dr. Coomer smiles behind his big mustache, and nods, “Yes! We have insurance, I am willing to sign him up. But it depends on the price, really!”

“Are… you willing to pay up front?” Nyro furrows his eyebrows, adjusting his mask.

“Why, indeed I am, doctor!”

“Erm…” Nyro glances at his papers, “About four thousand fifty, sir --”

“Then that is quite alright! Isn’t it, dear?” Dr. Coomer glances at Bubby, who grumbles a bit with a nod. “Yes, yes, I will just have to fill that out at home. How does that sound?”

… Where did he get that money, Benrey thinks.

Nyro’s red-ish eyes blink, and he nods quickly, “That’ll be perfectly fine, Dr. Coomer, thank you, I’m glad to hear it.”

Is all of that from Black Mesa? Benrey furrows his eyebrows, eyes squinting down at his hands. Ew. He does not like that.

“Benrey should be able to leave in a few days, thankfully,” Nyro explains to the group, “I should be heading off now. You all have a great day, alright? And if you need anything, you know where I am.”

And Nyro leaves, leaving Dr. Coomer, Bubby, Tommy and Gordon to sit in a bit of an awkward silence. Gordon scratches his head slightly, adjusting the ponytail he wore his hair in at the moment. Tommy clears his throat, as Dr. Coomer smiles wide to combat Bubby’s never-leaving frown.

“So… he doesn’t have a place to stay,” Tommy brings it up, “I - I don’t think my dad - will let us… keep him… like a weird cat…”

“Oh, right,” Bubby mutters, “Yeah. We’re unable to take him either.”

Benrey blinks. And Gordon seems to panic.

“You - you two should be able to, though, right??” he squints a little, waving his hands.

“Not for long, Gordon! Give it three days and we will be unable to keep him! We do not foster strange animals.”

Gordon groans, dragging a hand down his face, and Benrey clears his throat.

“You’re putting me with Feetman? Fucked up. Lol,” Benrey finally speaks up, blinking, “Loser.”

His eyes flash towards Benrey, and he shakes his head, “No. No. No. You -- just --”

“But - but Mr. Freeman, he has to stay somewhere!!”

Gordon’s fist ball, and Benrey tilts his head to look. He laughs, and points, “Dude. Look, his fists are balled, he’s so mad… might have to protect your kid from you because you’re so mad --”

“Don’t fucking -- talk about Joshua. Don’t. If --” Gordon scrunches his face up, grimacing as he sighs in silence. A few moments pass, without Benrey saying jack shit, before he sighs, “Fine. Okay, fine. Whatever. Just -- we’ll have to go over house rules when it happens, but, first things first, don’t fuck with Joshua.”

“.. Dude, I won’t, that would suck. I prommy.”

… Gordon cracks a smile, sighing a laugh out, “Wh -- ‘prommy’?” he exhales, and Tommy laughs a bit, “What the hell.”

“Gordon, I think Benrey means ‘promise’!”

“Yeah, yeah I get that. I get it. I know. Okay.”

Gordon glances at Benrey again, who now sits with a bit of a smile on his face. It felt nice to make that sucker laugh again. He missed it, honestly… 

He wishes a lot of things didn’t happen so that making him laugh wouldn’t be as hard as it is.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> say hi 2 nyro /j
> 
> anyways! so thank you guys for all the support it literally means so much you guys are so nice :weeps: <3333!! so here's 2 chapters in a day!


	4. there is no lyric.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> house rules:  
> 1\. joshua safety first.  
> 2\. attic and gordon room off limits.  
> 3\. no music for benrey !  
> 5\. frogger Polygob pelase

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> yeah i could not think of a title. i mostly typed this on my phone and i am currently exhausted from schoolwork, HOWEVER i did publish like 2 hlvrai videos on ym youtube. one is an animatic and the other is crimewaves meme, if u like that stuff i’d appreciate it if u checked it out!!  
> ALSO THANK YOU SM FOR YOUR SUPPORT!! it’s crazy seeing people read this and like it.. i love u mwah! /p

Life with Benrey was so far easier than he thought. Despite the unease and trauma. 

He was still an alien and he was still annoying as shit. Gordon doesn’t know why he agreed to this if he hates him so much! He doesn’t get it, like, why? Why be so pissed off at him yet drive him home with him and Tommy?

He’s kind of baffled by it, really. Gordon had started going over things in his head, the car ride was silent besides Tommy’s music connected to the aux. Benrey was smack dab in the middle of the backseat of the car, so whenever Gordon would look up to check the mirror, he would be there, blinking from behind his helmet - a cracked one, at that. From the short glances he actually did get, Benrey seemed to be… unreadable. 

Well, beyond the fact that he finally spoke up. 

“... ‘S this music?” he blankly asks Tommy, pointing at the radio. 

Tommy turns to Benrey with a baffled blink, and then laughs, “Wh - What?”

“Music.”

… Gordon bites back a laugh. 

“You could literally not be any more cryptic, dude,” Gordon comments, twisting the wheel to make a swift turn. 

“... Whuh?” 

Shaking his head, Tommy points to the radio, “This - this is Oingo Oi- Boingo!” he smiles, “I have - some more kinds of - of music if you’d like to change, uhm…”

Benrey smiles, “Nah. Sexy music.”

Gordon stifles another laugh. 

“Never use that to describe anything ever again.”

“No promises.”

“Why? It’s so awful. Really bad,” Gordon complains, pulling the car to a stop at a red light. 

Benrey sticks his tongue out at Gordon instead of responding properly. 

“Do - do you want to live or not, asshole?” he threatens, to which Benrey glances away. Tough crowd, Gordon thinks, turning his gaze back toward the road. Tommy’s gaze softens a bit. 

… “That w- was a bit rude, Mr. Freeman…” Tommy whispers to Gordon, turning up the music. Gordon responds with a sigh and a quiet ‘I know, sorry’.

The rest of the car ride is silent besides Dead Man’s Party on repeat. 

When they finally arrive, Gordon pauses before opening the front door to the house. He turns to Benrey, holding a finger up as he grips his house keys. 

“We’re going over house rules immediately.  _ No breaking shit _ , got it?” Gordon expresses his words as clearly as possible, and Benrey frowns. 

“Yeah. Yeah, whatever,” Benrey blinks, adjusting the little hospital bracelet on his wrist. It looks like it’s been pulled nonstop. 

Gordon sighs, “Great! Great,” he shoots Tommy a thankful look as he follows them in, shutting the door behind him in a polite manner. Tommy was always hyper aware of his manners, and while Gordon was the opposite, he was aware Tommy tried and he appreciated it. Like, a lot. This leaves Gordon with a slight smile on his face. 

“First thing-” Gordon starts, holding a finger up. Benrey had already started to look around a little, hands in front of his chest as his pupils dilated, “Benrey!”

Benrey blinks. 

“Wha?”

“Listen. First thing, no touching my son’s shit,” Benrey watches as Gordon explains his son, and to Gordon, seemed to be taking none of it in, “Two. No cooking. I do not trust you without me in the room, dude - uhm, three. Don’t touch shit.”

“Wh-” Benrey frowns, “Like, at all? D’ I gotta unlock them at level 5 of Gordos trust?”

Oh. Oh, there’s the weird metaphors. Gordon didn’t exactly acknowledge the thought, but it made him bittersweet. Like, he missed them. In some manner. 

But Benrey seemed sad about that, and Gordon felt bad. Fuck hyper empathy, all my homies fucking hate hyper empathy. 

“Uhm - we can work things out, I guess?” the physicist offers, and Benrey shrugs at, “Like, no attic. Whatsoever. No Josh Room either, my room is only available if I’m there and you knock first. Guest room is - is yours, I guess, uhm… Kitchen is fine.”

Tommy clears his throat, “Mr. Freeman! What about,-” 

“Ah, shit! Right!”

Gordon claps his hands, and both of the companions wince. He did not realize how loud that was. 

“.. Sorry,” he laughs a bit awkwardly, and then clears his throat, “Yeah. Thanks, uhm, Benrey, dont fucking touch my guitar shit.”

“You play?” Benrey’s eyes light up, even just the slightest change from his monotone expression, “... Niice.”

“Yeah. Yeah, whatever, just - …” Benrey had started to look away from Gordon again, glancing back and forth from him and the TV cart. Gordon watches as he doesn’t acknowledge anything else, and just.. sighs, basically. “...You're allowed to touch the consoles.”

The ex-security guard darts straight to his game box, without another word. Gordon and Tommy exchange glances of, ‘Oh, Tommy, I’m really in it now,’ and ‘Thanks for taking in my weird cat friend.’ A weird moment, yet both of them seemed to mutually understand each other. 

Tommy hung out a bit after that, overall standing to make sure that no fights broke out while Benrey poked his nose in every crevice that wouldn’t emit a yelp from Gordon. Overall, he just leeched on Gordon’s supply of orange Fanta™, though the owner wasn’t about to complain, considering he didn’t drink it much anymore. Upon an experience of fucked up Soda Slurpage, Gordon found that, well, he did not want to drink that as much as he used to. Water was much more appealing. So was sweet tea, though he just didn’t want to make it all the time, (and the bottled stuff tasted better on road trips with the Science Team for some reason. Coomer’s wikipedia article reading was a nice way to combat the sweetness of it.)

So Gordon wasn’t complaining as much as he thought he would be.  _ Benrey must be more tired than I thought _ , Gordon muses to himself, watching from across the room as Benrey adjusts himself further into the cushions. Eugh. That uniform looks uncomfortable.

“... Hey, Tommy?”

“Mmh?” Tommy swallows, “Y-Yes?”

“Wouldn’t be weird to get Benrey different clothes?”

“Wh - you mean just getting him a wardrobe? N — doesn’t seem weird to me. It’s - it’s like getting a - a dog a collar when it - when you find it - adopt it off the street. Yeah!”

“Weird metaphor,” Gordon mumbles as Tommy grins past his silly straw.

“My entire specialty - entire brand, Mr. Freeman!”

Gordon nods, letting out a quiet ‘uh-huh’.

Well. Tommy left eventually, leaving Gordon to think by himself. Benrey still had not turned off the old, old PlayStation 2 he dug up from Gordon’s dusty closet. The age of it didn't seem to bother him, or maybe it was just the weird graphics on screen that sedated them so much. Gordon squints as he walks past the couch, eyes on the television. 

“... Frogger?” He finally speaks up, this being the first word that wasn't necessarily a warning. 

While it took Benrey a second to respond, he pulls his tongue back in from concentration to answer, “Ye.”

Simply put, Gordon thinks, “.. Honestly thought I - wait, why?”

“Fff…” Benrey starts, blinking with dead eyes as his character falls off the platform, “..uuck.” … It’s a while before he continues, “Ah shit. My bad. Um… polygob..”

Polygob. 

“Polygons? You mean those?” 

Benrey nods, “Pretty- pretty cool, huh. I love it.”

“What the hell..-“ Gordon pushes his glasses up to rub his eyes, and then makes an exasperated motion, “-Yeah, actually. Yeah. You’re right. I like em too.”

That was genuine. Yet Benrey didn’t seem to acknowledge it, and instead, glued their eyes back to the screen. …

…

“... I’m gonna head to bed,” Gordon finally announces, waving to Benrey as he starts to walk down the hallway. Benrey seems to look away from the screen at that, and then, peeks over the back of the couch.

“Yo, yo, yo, wait. Benny boy bed please?”

“Guest room is at the end of the hall. Next to Josh’s room. You’ll find it.”

“Comfy bed promise?” Benrey presses further, and once they sparked a ‘yeah,’ from Gordon, nods, “M’kay. G’night bro. Nighty night to best friend Gordon.”

And yet, Gordon is too tired to correct him. Instead, he finds himself throwing himself into bed with the exhaustion of a thousand men. 

Goodnight, Gordon!


End file.
